I applied to a finance job with Microsoft in Europe. I was very interested the position as it sounded very good, and I have friends working at Microsoft so I know the organization. Two of these friends wrote an internal recommendation for my application, and we spent some time completing Microsoft internal referral forms with why they thought I was suitable for the job and why my experience and background were relevant for the position. We never received a feedback on what was the status of this candidature, and in one occasion my friend asked, the answer was very ambiguous even though by other sources we had learnt that they were probably looking for someone with more seniority. Two months later I just received a non-reply mail from Microsoft recruiting saying they were not proceeding with my application. I doubt they ever started. In the last months I have applied to other technology companies (Google, Twitter) through their employee's referral programme and they have taken the time to consider and give feedback to the candidate and to the person doing the referral. From my experience Microsoft don't seem to do so.